The things I do for art…
Eris 136199 at Jazz em Agosto, Lisbon
Han-earl Park é daqueles músicos guiados por uma insatisfação permanente. Cada novo projeto a que se dedica é uma nova oportunidade para testar, com um empenho quase científico, os limites da melodia, do noise e da noção ciber-futurista da música que leva para palco. Em Eris 136199, o mistério começa desde logo na designação, alastrando depois à relação desafiante que a sua guitarra estabelece com o saxofone de Catherine Sikora e com a guitarra de Nick Didkovsky (fundador e líder do grupo Dr. Nerve, nome de referência da cena vanguardista da Downtown nova-iorquina). [Read the rest…]
Sunday, August 11, 2019, at 6:30pm: Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) perform as part of Jazz em Agosto. The event takes place at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Av. de Berna, 45A, 1067-001 Lisbon, Portugal). Tickets: €6.00; Auditorium 2 Pass: €20.00 [get tickets…].
I am super excited to finally be able to announce this performance, and the first details of this discordant trio’s triumphant return! I am very proud of this group and the noise we make, and so very, very grateful to be making more noise for you. Thank you so much. See you in August!
See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [ Jazz em Agosto page…]
By Eris 136199
Eris 136199 (BAF001) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (saxophone) and Nick Didkovsky (guitar).
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
© + ℗ 2018 Han-earl Park.
Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar; tracks 1 and 5), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet; tracks 2–4).
Track listing: Monopod (27:19), Pleonasm (Metis 9) (17:08), Flying Rods (Metis 9) (7:41), Hydraphon (7:34), StopCock (10:54). Total duration: 70:33.
© 2015 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.
Han-earl Park at FUAIM, Cork
Friday, March 22, 2019, at 1:10pm: FUAIM: Music at UCC presents “guitar noise, improvisation and cyborg virtuosity” with a solo performance by Han-earl Park. The performance take place at the Aula Maxima (University College Cork, Cork). Admission is free.
See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [FUAIM page…] [Facebook event…]
Details
Described as a ‘musical philosopher’ and ‘delightful shape-shifter,’ guitarist Han-earl Park is no stranger to the FUAIM series, having last performed at UCC with his ground-breaking ensemble, Sirene 1009, back in Spring 2017.
We are delighted to welcome him back this Friday for a solo concert that promises to be a ‘revelatory listening experience that infuses modern aesthetics with the spirit of the ancient.’ Please join us!
Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (박한얼) has been crossing borders and performing fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, always traditional, open improvised musics for twenty years. As soloist, he has performed in recent years in New York, Munich, Seoul and elsewhere, and his ensembles have performed across Europe and the USA.
Park is the instigator and mastermind behind ensembles such as Eris 136199 (with Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky) and Sirene 1009 (with Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh), and co-conspirator in projects with Richard Barrett and others. Park is the constructor of the machine improviser io 0.0.1 beta++, and of Metis 9, a playbook of improvisative tactics. He has performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Dunmall, Evan Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Lol Coxhill, Ingrid Laubrock, Josh Sinton, Gino Robair, Louise D.E. Jensen, Pat Thomas and Franziska Schroeder. His ensembles have performed at festivals including Freedom of the City (London), Brilliant Corners (Belfast), ISIM (New York), CEAIT (Los Angeles) and Sonic Acts (Amsterdam).
“Guitarist Han-earl Park is a musical philosopher…. Expect unexpected things from Park, who is a delightful shape-shifter….”
Brian Morton (Point of Departure)
“Though short, percussive, hard-to-notate sounds dominate Han-earl Park’s sound, he does utilize the totality of the guitar’s sonorities—just not in the proportions demanded by the nostalgic (retrospective, reactionary, etc.) owners of major media….”
Stanley Zappa (The New York City Jazz Record)
“A colorful, sometimes violent and revelatory listening experience that infuses modern aesthetics with the spirit of the ancient.”
John Morrison (Jazz Right Now)
Admission is free. All welcome!
updates
03-19-19: quote FUAIM newsletter.
A jangling, twisting uneasiness, and climbing over a breathless downpour of sound (reviews: Eris 136199)
A science fictional foray? the specter of drumming giant Rashied Ali? searing, erupting explosions? striking song-like passages over the rumble and din? climbing over a breathless downpour of sound? John Pietaro writes in the February issue of The New York City Jazz Record that: “In a field of experimentation and free music, Eris 136199 stands as singular.”
The closing work, two-part “Hypnagogia”, begins with the most electronic of sounds in [Nick] Didkovsky’s canon and as it fades the saxophonist blows an aerial passage that turns expressionistic as [Han-earl] Park hurls rapid- fire fills about her (think Interstellar Space as a starting point). By the time Didkovsky returns, his guitar embellishes Park’s and [Catherine] Sikora closes with lush postbop improvisation that will give listeners chills. [Read the rest…]
I love this review! Not just for its generosity and not just that it’s evident that the writer listened carefully (though, of course, it’s both of those), but I appreciate that it devotes space, in turn, to each musician of the trio. So big thanks to John for the review, and thanks, John, for hearing the Ali-connection back in 2013.
Mike Borella at Avant Music News finds monstrous extemporizations; jangling, twisting uneasiness; and an internal battle of self-restraint:
Eris 136199 is much more than deconstructivistic listening. Putting these three explorers together results in a surprising pleasant, if not angular and abstract, experience. Sikora and Didkovsky are a wonderful stylistic matchup – a sax player who is both aggressive and understated with a guitarist who seems to be fighting an internal battle of self-restraint. Park hangs around in the background, adding texture and an ephemeral context for their parts. [Read the rest…]
He concludes by writing: “Great stuff and highly recommended.”
Elsewhere, Avant Scena writes that “the music is just wonderful and charming – all kinds of colors, rhythms, expressions and sounds are condensed together in one form.” And Dolf Mulder writing in Vital Weekly describes a complex music emerging from the meeting of three very different individuals: “A radical kind of music.”
And finally, in Free Jazz’s survey of the recent albums by Catherine Sikora, Fotis Nikolakopoulos describes, in his ☆☆☆☆ review of Eris 136199, dismantling of the rock guitar solo pose, multidimensional timbres and atmosphere, and a constant battle of metallic guitar sounds and the organic feel of the saxophone: “like-minded improvisers who try to find their way through collective thinking and playing…. Eris 136199 is an album that blossoms after repeated listenings and deserves more than a quick listen….”
[About this album…] [Get the CD/download (Bandcamp)…] [All reviews…]
CD: €11 minimum (‘name your price’) plus shipping.*†
Download: €8 minimum (‘name your price’).†
* Limited edition glass-mastered CD. CD includes additional material (liner notes, artwork, etc.) not included in the download version of the album.
*† Both digital and physical purchases give you streaming via the free Bandcamp app, and option to download the recording in multiple formats including lossless.
performance diary (Berlin, Cork, Lisbon, Europe) 012619
| date | venue | time | details |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 22, 2019 | Aula Maxima University College Cork Cork, Ireland |
1:10pm | Han-earl Park (guitar) presented by FUAIM Music at UCC. Admission free. [Details…] [FUAIM page…] [Facebook event…] |
| August 11, 2019 | Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Av. de Berna, 45 A Lisbon, Portugal |
6:30pm | Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) as part of Jazz em Agosto. [Details…] [Jazz em Agosto page (info/tickets)…] |
| August 2019 | TBA Europe |
TBA | Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar). European tour! We have a single available date (9 August) remaining. Interested venues, programmers and promoters, please get in touch! Details to follow… |
| September 11, 2019 | TBA Berlin, Germany |
TBA | Details to follow… |
Continue reading “performance diary (Berlin, Cork, Lisbon, Europe) 012619”
Best of 2018
Boiling down 2018 to this list involved many very difficult decisions. We stand by all of the records on this list and think they will stand the test of time.” [Read the rest…]
I am deeply honored to again find one of my recordings (this year it’s Eris 136199) in the wonderful company that is Jazz Right Now’s end-of-year list (also published at JazzTokyo). Did I say wonderful company? I am also very happy to see my personal favorite record of the year making Jazz Right Now’s #2!
Thank you so much, Cisco and everyone at Jazz Right Now! And a special thanks to Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn who wrote that honest, most unique of reviews:
At times guitarist Han-earl Park reminds me of what my bones and muscles would sound like if this speeding vehicle had in fact crushed or torn any of them (I do not have any broken bones, but I am still awaiting test results on my foot muscles). The sometimes slow, sometimes fast plucking and riffing literally makes me cringe today while writing this. My screaming at this speeding driver a split second before their vehicle crashed into the back of my bicycle might recall the blare of Catherine Sikora’s tenor sax throughout the album. I think of my repeating “WOAH, WOAH, WOAH” slowed down and amplified for full effect; loud enough that people heard the crash and my descent into the concrete of Nick Didkovsky’s improvised patterns. [Read the rest…]
In a Jazz Noise’s end-of-year top-ten, Dave Foxall describes Eris 136199 as:
Exquisitely constructed, spontaneously messed-up, endless depth, kind of like letting an insane brain surgeon in through your ear. [Read the rest…]
I’m very proud of the noise/music that is Eris 136199, and I am very proud to find it listed among such stupendously noisy music. Thanks also to a Jazz Noise for their amazing support of our work (in case you missed it, please have a read of the interviews with Nick, Catherine and me that were published in the run-up to the album release).
Elsewhere, Eris 136199 makes Avant Music News’ Honorable Mentions, and Lee Rice Epstein’ top 10 at Free Jazz Blog.
Big thanks again to Cisco Bradley, Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn and everyone at Jazz Right Now, Takeshi Goda at JazzTokyo, to Dave Foxall at a Jazz Noise, to Lee Rice Epstein and Paul Acquaro at Free Jazz Blog, and to Mike Borella of Avant Music News for their continued support!
[About this album…] [Get the CD/download (Bandcamp)…] [All reviews…]
CD: €11 minimum (‘name your price’) plus shipping.*
Download: €8 minimum (‘name your price’).†
* Limited edition glass-mastered CD. CD includes additional material (liner notes, artwork, etc.) not included in the download version of the album.
*† Both digital and physical purchases give you streaming via the free Bandcamp app, and option to download the recording in multiple formats including lossless.
Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park at the Institute of Sonology, The Hague
Wednesday, December 12, 2018, at 7:30pm: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar) (a.k.a. Numbers) perform as part of the Sonology Discussion Concert. Event takes place at the Arnold Schoenbergzaal, Instituut voor Sonologie/Koninklijk Conservatorium (Juliana van Stolberglaan 1, 2595 CA The Hague, The Netherlands). Free entrance.
See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [Facebook event…]
Plus, on the previous day (Tuesday, December 11), at 3:30pm, Han-earl Park will also be giving a presentation at the Colloquium at the Varèsezaal, Instituut voor Sonologie. He may be talking about:
Improvising automata, and improvising cyborgs; performing stories of salvation through technology, and amplifying the voices of everyday artifacts. Cautionary tales, and small triumphs, from the practice of an institutionally unaffiliated artist-engineer, as he attempts to evolve techniques and approaches while riding the lines between ambiguity, didacticism, the improvisative, virtuosity, and neo-Ludditism.
By Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park
Numbers (CS 201 cd) [details…]
Personnel: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
Track listing: tolur (15:38), tricav (10:42), ankpla (10:46), uettet (5:17), creens (6:03), ll……. (11:42). Total duration: 60:00.
© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.
Eris 136199 T-Shirts! Limited edition wearable discord
100% heavy cotton, preshrunk jersey.
Screen printed with PVC-free, solvent-free ink.
Choice of ladies’ and unisex/men’s fit.
Available in S, M, L, XL, XXL.
100% for the perfect noise-night-out.
Celebrate your love of skonkin’ improvised goodness by wearing the noisily official Eris tee.
Proven workwear for kid’s bicycle valets!
Endorsed by Shinsky and curious cats everywhere!
Make your companion animal look as good as Otis!
€18 plus shipping. [Buy now…]
Shinsky photo © 2018 Nick Didkovsky. Otis photo © 2018 Catherine Sikora. All other images © 2018 Han-earl Park.
Also from Eris 136199
Eris 136199 (BAF001) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (saxophone) and Nick Didkovsky (guitar).
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
© + ℗ 2018 Han-earl Park.
Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar; tracks 1 and 5), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet; tracks 2–4).
Track listing: Monopod (27:19), Pleonasm (Metis 9) (17:08), Flying Rods (Metis 9) (7:41), Hydraphon (7:34), StopCock (10:54). Total duration: 70:33.
© 2015 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.
Collisions with concrete, of thousands of years of musical history, and keeping it “in their pants” (reviews: Eris 136199 and Sirene 1009)
A descent into the concrete? rafting over a boiling river? a collisions of thousands of years of musical history? music to communicate cyclists’ collisions? and who are the “bass/drum/guitar boys”, and do they “keep it in their pants”? Fascinating first set of reviews for the newly released Eris 136199 (BAF001) by Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky, and a review from earlier this year of Sirene 1009 (BAF000) by Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh.
Eris 136199
Writing in Jazz Right Now, Gabriel Jermaine Vanlandingham-Dunn discusses the music in the context of his recent accident:
At times guitarist Han-earl Park reminds me of what my bones and muscles would sound like if this speeding vehicle had in fact crushed or torn any of them (I do not have any broken bones, but I am still awaiting test results on my foot muscles). The sometimes slow, sometimes fast plucking and riffing literally makes me cringe today while writing this. My screaming at this speeding driver a split second before their vehicle crashed into the back of my bicycle might recall the blare of Catherine Sikora’s tenor sax throughout the album. I think of my repeating “WOAH, WOAH, WOAH” slowed down and amplified for full effect; loud enough that people heard the crash and my descent into the concrete of Nick Didkovsky’s improvised patterns. [Read the rest…]
An intense and honest review, Vanlandingham-Dunn concludes that, despite being “no place near a pretty listen”, the album has value in its ability to help personal experiences and histories: “‘Yo man, you ever been hit by a car?’ ‘Yeah, but maybe we should listen to this album I just picked up before I tell you about it.’”
In a more poetic, if no less personal, review, Massimo Ricci of Touching Extremes finds music that explores “avenues of acrid timbral contiguity. It’s still unconventional music, mostly with a strong skeleton”:
It’s a persistent burbling of memories and conjectures revealing decades of accumulated experiences and data, not fully untangled, with a definite explosive potential. At times a need arises to recapitulate a bit; the interplay becomes less loaded, the fingers caressing and cherry picking rather than snapping and ripping. Sikora is practically flawless in oscillating between the roles of moderator and source of linear alternatives. Her jargon is fluid, quasi-effortless, deprived of angst in spite of the occasional labyrinthine reiterations and squiggling restlessness. [Read the rest…]
Meanwhile, in the JazzTokyo review, Takeshi Goda imagines a project “based on the history of music on the earth for thousands of years”; a music of all-encompassing knowledge, and a music of deviations:
襤褸を纏った侍従に付き添われた茨の冠の王女のような三人の図は、中世の教会のステンドグラスにふさわしい。無名の小惑星の名前を持つトリオの演奏は、地球に存在しない未知の物質だけでできている訳ではなく、地球上の数千年の音楽史を源に持つ。名状不明な音響のスキマに、グレゴリオ聖歌、吟遊詩人の竪琴、ニューオリンズの葬送マーチ、バルトークの弦楽四重奏、大都会のストリート・ミュージシャンなど、あらゆる人類の演奏行為の断片を聴きとることが出来る。逸脱を極めれば極めるほど、古典や伝統への親和性が高くなる。それはまるで「光速に近づくと、時間の流れが遅くなる」という特殊相対性理論（Special Relativity Theory）のようだ。彼らが目指す先は、まだ誰も提唱していない「特殊逸脱性理論（Special Deviation Theory）」の確立なのかもしれない。[Read the rest…]
[About this album…] [Get the CD/download (Bandcamp)…] [All reviews…]
CD: €11 minimum (‘name your price’) plus shipping.*†
Download: €8 minimum (‘name your price’).†
Sirene 1009
And finally, Stuart Marshall at The Sound Projector finds in Sirene 1009 a music free from “vocal histrionics” and “virtuoso runs/cacophonous jams” that lack “musical structure,” stating that “this awesome foursome, who know when to let rip and when to keep it in their pants”:
For further proof of the UK improv scene’s vitality look no further than Sirene 1009. Though not everyone is a household name (nor British), at least two of this four-piece are scene mainstays, and the whole squad sounds as at-home with each other as they are with the promiscuous goings in English jazz dens. The much frequented Cafe OTO is our virtual venue for most of this set, where visceral freeform unscrunches itself into being, sparked by Caroline Pugh’s tempestuous, syllable-timed glossolalia and billowed by flurries from the bass/drum/guitar boys, with lashings of warm vibrato throughout. [Read the rest…]
[About this album…] [Get the CD/download (Bandcamp)…] [All reviews…]
CD: €11 minimum (‘name your price’) plus shipping.*
Download: €8 minimum (‘name your price’).‡
Notes
* Limited edition glass-mastered CD. CD includes additional material (liner notes, artwork, etc.) not included in the download version of the album.
*† Both digital and physical purchases give you streaming via the free Bandcamp app, and option to download the recording in multiple formats including lossless.
Sirene 1009’s London performance presented with funding from Culture Ireland, and support from SLAM Productions.
out now! Eris 136199 (BAF001)
October 9, 2018: Eris 136199’s eponymous second album (compact disc and digital download) is out now! What can you look forward to hearing on this record? Here’s what I wrote in the liner notes:*
Eris 136199 may construct music in the way that is closest to my imagination’s music, even as it continues to confound my moment-by-moment expectations. I have no a priori knowledge of each bloop or bleep or klang or fizz or honk or skronk… nor do I have any specific sense of the strategies at play before we make that first sounding.
But as the music gets underway, and the initial gestures get sounded, I think: yes, of course. There’s that succession of choices (constructive, difficult, obvious, oblique) that have brought me (brought us) right here, right-now; choices that, however perplexing in the moment, retroactively comes to seem almost inevitable. And then it’s time for me to make that next choice, secure in the knowledge that Catherine [Sikora] and Nick [Didkovsky] are ready to make their choices, (ir)responsibly, care(ful|less)ly, with unhurried/spur-of-the-moment deliberation that real-time constraints offer.*
I’m enormously proud of the music recorded here, and blessed to have worked with all the wonderful people who all brought their best game to this album. In particular, I am very grateful to Troels Bech and Charlie McGovern who recorded the performances with clarity and great care, and to Richard Scott who mastered the whole album, giving it a stunning punch and immediacy. Enjoy the noise!
[About this album…] [Get the CD/download (Bandcamp)…]
CD: €11 minimum (‘name your price’) plus shipping.†‡
Download: €8 minimum (‘name your price’).‡
* Liner notes are only available with the CD.
† Limited edition glass-mastered CD. CD includes additional material (liner notes, artwork, etc.) not included in the download version of the album.
‡ Both digital and physical purchases give you streaming via the free Bandcamp app, and option to download the recording in multiple formats including lossless.
Also by Eris 136199
Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar; tracks 1 and 5), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet; tracks 2–4).
Track listing: Monopod (27:19), Pleonasm (Metis 9) (17:08), Flying Rods (Metis 9) (7:41), Hydraphon (7:34), StopCock (10:54). Total duration: 70:33.
© 2015 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.
Last chance to catch Cryptogenic Animals!
Update: download no longer available (“limited availability… until October 9, 2018”). For those who got it, big thanks for your support; enjoy the noise!
Repurposing melodic atoms? Dueling amplifiers? By turns riding and submerging into reverberant spaces?
A friendly reminder that you have about 48 hours (until October 9, 2018) to get Cryptogenic Animals. Limited availability, you can get the album free only with pre-orders of Eris 136199’s new album.
You can also hear saxophonist Catherine Sikora revisit and rework some of the melodic atoms played in Copenhagen; trying them against the contrasting acoustic environments. And, adapting to the disparate amplification available in Cheltenham (a diminutive solid-state amp against a 112 Fender), Nick Didkovsky and Han-earl Park reexamine the freedoms and restraints of the two-guitar context; an experience that would inform into their approach in Newcastle in significant ways. [Read the rest…]
Unique? Well, how often do I describe one of my recordings as unhurried and lush? This may be the closest I get to playing ambient.
Only available with pre-orders of Eris 136199
Eris 136199 (BAF001) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (saxophone) and Nick Didkovsky (guitar).
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
© + ℗ 2018 Han-earl Park.
updates
10-09-18: no longer available for download.
100% perishable skills and shrieks of crustaceans (a Jazz Noise: 7 Questions)
Mathy grindcore? tubular gates? shrieks of crustaceans? 100% perishable skills? guitars burning-up on reentry? what do Special Forces snipers and saxophonists have in common? and what is The Shitty Gig Foundation? In the run-up to the launch Eris 136199’s new album, a Jazz Noise has been running a special series of 7 Questions with each member of the trio, plus it is hosting an exclusive preview of the Adaptive Radiation suite.
When asked about the balance of preparation vs. improvisation in her work, Catherine Sikora says:
It’s all about the preparation, for me! The saxophone is such a demanding instrument that if I am not totally prepared, in good shape to physically manage the instrument, then the improvisation will be negatively affected. The act of merely producing a good tone requires daily work, there is no escape, and I love that about the instrument. Practice is what I do every day, regardless of whatever else is happening, because the skill of playing is 100% perishable. The more prepared I am for a performance, the more freedom I have to execute my ideas. [Read the rest…]
On the same topic, Nick Didkovsky says:
With Eris 136199 we just set up and play (that’s my impression anyway, maybe I am overlooking some secret preparation rituals!). It really feels like everyone’s been sort of preparing for years before every performance. When we play I feel like we are being dropped back into a continuum that has been periodically interrupted. We really don’t discuss much ahead of time other than the notion that the silent shrieks of crustaceans may be ensconced in shrimp crackers and are released when you bite them. [Read the rest…]
I get the honor of stepping over the 7 Questions border when I get to expand upon how Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy affected Sirene 1009:
Aspects of VanderMeer’s writing compelled me to push the Sirene 1009 mix away from the vérité that is the vernacular of recorded free improvisation….
The solution [to issues with mixing the recording] turned out to be to ratchet up the artifice of the recording…. The differences and transitions are, hopefully, subtle enough that the listener are not consciously jolted out of the moment, but it weaves an extra narrative. Like VanderMeer’s manipulations in writing craft, genre, etc., I was working to accentuate, through the mixing process, the improvisative journey taken by the ensemble in performance-time. [Read the rest…]
Big thanks to Dave Foxall of a Jazz Noise for championing the trio’s thoughts, words and music.
exclusive: Adaptive Radiation I, II and III
Finally, there a very special, exclusive preview of the Adaptive Radiation suite hosted at a Jazz Noise. Have a listen; you won’t find it anywhere else! [Listen…]
By Eris 136199
Eris 136199 (BAF001) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (saxophone) and Nick Didkovsky (guitar).
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
© + ℗ 2018 Han-earl Park.
Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar; tracks 1 and 5), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet; tracks 2–4).
Track listing: Monopod (27:19), Pleonasm (Metis 9) (17:08), Flying Rods (Metis 9) (7:41), Hydraphon (7:34), StopCock (10:54). Total duration: 70:33.
© 2015 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.
By Sirene 1009
Sirene 1009 (BAF000) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass), Mark Sanders (drums) and Caroline Pugh (voice and tape recorder).
Track listing: Psychohistory III (≥9:47), Cliodynamics I (10:44), Cliodynamics II (12:22), Cliodynamics III (5:11), Hopeful Monsters (9:41), Psychohistory V (≥10:40). Total duration ≥58:25.
© + ℗ 2017 Han-earl Park.